Whammy DT
Reviewed by:
Maidenheadsteve, on february 27, 2013 3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Price paid: $ 280

Purchased from: Union Music

Ease of Use: It's from 2011, and it's very easy to get a good sound with it. The manual is useless since the settings on the pedal tell you what they do. I can get Tom Morello and Jack White sounds with ease. The only thing I would get to make the pedal easier to use is an FS3-X footswitch, so you have hands-free switching of settings. The only thing you need to do to use it is plug in the power supply, plug in the guitar, plug the pedal to the amp, and turn the black knobs and push down the expression pedal when necessary. // 10

Sound: Except for a few cases, the effect signal is very strong, especially with my god-awful Peavey Vypyr 15. It isn't noisy (in terms of feedback/hum/etc) and nails the sounds of any Whammy user (my favorite is Morello). The only case that the signal is weak is with 1-2 octave up with high notes (E and B strings), pinch harmonics, and trilling on higher notes. The Down Tune setting is accurate, exactly like tuning a guitar. It sounds good on clean and distortion. The Harmony sounds great on clean, but not distortion. // 10

Reliability & Durability: From what I can tell the Whammy DT is more durable than the IV. You don't need to calibrate it like the IV. I would handle it with care like all other pedals, but I don't see any other problems arising. Well, now I guess I will ramble to fill out the stupid requirements. It is durable. Don't drop it off of a high, precarious height. It would probably break. However, it would probably survive a 5 foot drop. But I would not do that repeatedly. That should just about do it for the character requirement. // 10

Overall Impression: I use the pedal to Rage Against The Machine, and it does so excellently with 1 and 2 octaves up (my favorite features). I like the addition of true bypass and DC power, since I can power it with a VoodooLab Pedal Power 2 Plus. The addition of the Down tune makes interval tunings pointless since it sounds exactly like tuning the guitar. I use half step down tuning for Smashing Pumpkins, Black Sabbath, and Thin Lizzy. The down tune and DC power settings is why I chose it over the other Whammy models. I would buy it again if stolen.
Video from YouTube:

Whammy DT
Reviewed by:
AuraFX, on june 28, 2013 0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Ease of Use: I owned the Whammy IV for a few years and then was going to upgrade to the new Whammy V, but having looked into it, went with the DT instead as it has more options.
It's easy to use. Like the older Whammy you have the main pedal (this time in the middle of the larger frame, rather than to one side on the other Whammy models) and then black rotary knobs change the options indicated with LED's.
The DT is a tiny bit more complex since you have three footswitches but it's not rocket science. The Harmony and Whammy bend settings are now on the left of the expression pedal as opposed to the right side for the other models (coincidentally a lot of people seem to complain about this, but since I have the pedal near the start of my chain, this is actually in the right place for me to not have to reach over the pedal to turn it on whilst stood in front of my pedal board). The single rotary knob switches between all the Harmony and Whammy settings same as a Whammy 4 and the footswitch turns this effect side on or off.
On the right hand side you have the pitch-shifted tunings for chords - so you can tune up or down in semi-tones across the whole guitar. There are also gentle detune chorus type settings. This section has it's own on/off switch and LED set up. Then there's a small momentary system switch which allows you to flick the effect on or off briefly.
I didn't realize until I bought it that you can have all the sections on or off simultaneously, so you can down tune by a semi-tone and then harmonize in fifths or whatever and momentary switch these in and out. Not sure how much of this you'd want to use - but then the Whammy is mainly about weird sounds so go wild. // 9

Sound: This is second in my pedalboard chain, after only a wha as it reacts best to a clean signal and tends to freak out if you put a boosted or distortion signal into it. There is no extra noise. Unlike the old Whammy pedals this is true bypass so when it's off you don't even get the slight tone drain you got with the Whammy 4. The conversion to digital is much improved and the tone remains thick even when on, so this was a big improvement over the 4. I'm sure there's some digital coloration - but when you're playing loud live and doing screaming Harmony bends, it probably doesn't matter. You are unlikely to be trying to capture a pristine Vintage guitar tone when doing Whammy solos so who cares if there's a slight tone change?
The good thing is you can throw on the Harmony settings into a distorted guitar channel and sound like two full guitars in unison. It now handles chords very well with no warble or tracking weirdness. I've tried some odd chords and fast sweeps and it is more or less perfect. There is a tiny, tiny bit of latency with the downtuning - it's just enough to be noticeable, but it's certainly less than say a Roland GR-55 of other synth tracking.
Overall you will probably love or hate Whammy sounds - it's just that octave shifting yelp - if you buy this pedal you will obviously be trying to get that effect so there's unlikely to be disappointment. The Harmony setting is improved and latency is less, the overall sound is just doubled whereas the Whammy 4 seemed to carve off the low end and be ice-pick digital treble there is none of this unless you are 2 octaves up on the higher strings when it gets a bit electronic screaming.
The 'tuning' section is very handy. TBH I don't use this as much as I thought I might live as I tend to either have guitars in other tunings or use a Line 6 JTV-59 now which has perfect retuning through the piezo bridge. But this effect is really handy for checking out a different tuning when song-writing, or for short sections, or for throwing in a bass-line on guitar etc.
Overall a big step up from the Whammy 4. Whether it's enough to beat that Whammy 5 will depend on if you want to mess around with drop tunings a lot I guess. // 9

Reliability & Durability: It's pretty solid. All sheet metal folded and with chunky true bypass switches. These are a big step up from the older Whammy's with their hard to feel spongy switches. The rotary knobs are metal and have enough of a click to feel the movement. The expression pedal is a lot smoother and doesn't need calibrating any more which means it's always set correctly. It looks neater too and there is a smoother travel across the whole range.
It's 9v now unlike the dedicated power supply of the older models. You can still use the supplied power transformer but if you have a multi-pedal supply with enough output you can run the Whammy DT from that instead. It's true bypass so if it does go dead your signal still goes through untouched which makes a nice change from when Whammy's used to die and kill your whole board until you could replug everything.
I'm sure it's pretty delicate so if you threw this around it's not going to withstand the same punishment as say a compact Boss pedal which will outlive us and the cockroaches but it's not a cheap bit of plastic. I've never had an issue with it. // 9

Overall Impression: If you want that Whammy sound or pitch perfect Harmony shifting, you will basically want this pedal. There are others that claim to do the Whammy sound but why bother - just get one of these.
If you have a Whammy 4 and are fed up of the digital sound, buffered bypass, occasional random warbles and latency - just upgrade now, you'll be much happier. The only question really is do you go for the DT or the new Whammy V. There's not a vast deal of difference having tried both. The Whammy V does handle some polyphonic chord stuff slightly better from my brief testing, but the DT is good enough to play most things without any issues. The DT has the re-tuning shifter which may be very useful for you. In the end I haven't used that feature as much as I thought I might - but it is still handy to have that for song writing or trying odd stuff out or bits of songs that might be in a different tuning.
The only other concern is that the Whammy DT is pretty big. If you have a smaller pedalboard or just don't like carrying round lots of stuff, this is one of the biggest pedals on the market that isn't a multi-pedal board. The size makes it easy to modify settings on stage, but it's also a big investment in board real-estate.
If I were working on an upgrade I'd ask DigiTech to work on the latency for the chords through the tuning section. It's been vastly improved but there is still some latency and it can be a bit annoying with faster chord changes etc. It's not enough to say don't buy the thing - but I'm sure the next gen Whammy's will have better convertors and will be faster like everything else.
Oh and I haven't used it but this pedal handles MIDI well (I've seen a friend demoing it with a MIDI board) - if that helps you.
I'd quite like a double Harmony mode on future pedals. So you could set it to have a voice above and below, or maybe one octave down and two octaves down. That'd just save me using a harmonist pedal as well - so it's just greed I guess. Heh. // 9

I bought this pedal recently and REALLY enjoy it! Very minimal tone loss. The down tuning feature is great if you like to do covers. Also the chorus feature is just icing on this delicious cake. If you like that whammy pedal sound this pedal is worth your money!

My guitar is a speed metal guitar. Many of these types of guitars don't have a Whammy bar because they are minimalist in knobs. You are supposed to be fretting and strumming, not twiddling knobs. A general principle held by some members of some bands like Megadeth, Annihilator, Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave etc. So they do all their effects either by playing but mostly combine it with pedals. In this case of a Whammy, this is the pedal to use.So how does it sound? It does sound colder and a little more digital than using a real Whammy bar, but then again its a modeling pedal and you can't expect to exactly match a Whammy, but you can get very close, especially if you don't press the Whammy all the way. Sometimes just a slight little rock back and forth after playing the note can bring about the tones you want rather than playing a note and quickly stomping your foot down. Also using it sparingly and maybe attacking a Wah pedal too sometimes also makes it sound better when you whammy with it. So don't overwhammy or it would sound too digital and not often or it gets stale fast.Other than that it has some really nice true bypass and effects including harmony and two lower settings for some interesting deeper shallow sounds. The DT lets you drop tune but has a foot switch where you can quickly drop down and go back up to create hammer-ons and pull offs. Basically if you don't have a whammy bar and need to whammy, then get this. You sort of need it.BTW - this is rated one of the most important pedals ever made.